Notes: HK police officers injured in the course of duty, who have exemplary records often get a second chance at life as cyborgs. That's what they always told Charlie Chung, a detective with the HK police's vice department. With a record of valor citations as long as his arm, a solid arrest record and a reputation as a brilliant detective, he always knew he was one of the elite. So when his armored police car exploded in a hail of armor-piercing HV slugs, his last thought before he blacked out was whether he would get a chance to live again...

When he finally awoke, it was to darkness and silence. No feeling. At first Charlie thought he was dead. Then he realized that he was probably in an isolation tank. At last after an interval that might have been minutes or hours, Charlie heard the voice of a surgeon, reaching him through a language implant in his brain. Carefully, dispassionately, the surgeon explained that although they had been able to save his brain, his body - including his spine and much of the motor regions of his brain attached to it - had been destroyed. With such extensive damage, a normal cyborg body was not an option, and his life was dependent on the life support system his brain currently sat in. There were two options. They could turn the system off - or he could opt for a new program, as a a living brain in an artificial intelligence system. For Charlie, it was no contest. No matter how, he wanted to live.

These days, Charlie-1 is more machine than tissue - a brain in a box, without limbs or normal senses. He does not eat, sleep or perform any natural functions. Instead, he is connected to a vast database that he can update at will. His "eyes" are satellite cameras, and his ears are microwave and radio links. He can even operate the HK light orbital laser array - as he jokes "More firepower than I ever had as a cop!" He also has a partner, Bo Zh‡o, a cyborg officer with HK ESWAT who has gone through a less drastic version of the same process. Charley-1 has a direct microwave link to Bo, and he believes that being able to see the world through her cybereyes is one of the things that has kept him sane